The Business Council of Australia welcomes the discussion paper on employee share ownership plans released today by the federal government.

The paper indicates a clear intent to support employee share ownership plans and to provide certainty to business and employees.

The government has responded quickly to the genuine concerns raised by business, and is acknowledging the importance of broad-based employee share ownership plans to the economy.

The discussion paper is a constructive step in the right direction – a step towards continuing use of employee share ownership plans to appropriately align the interests of business owners and employees. It represents a significant improvement on the measures announced in the Budget.

We particularly welcome the decision to make greater use of reporting to address issues of compliance with Australian tax law.

There are, however, a number of issues of detail on which more needs to be done. We will outline these in a submission to government next week.

Based on today’s discussion paper proposals, we are hopeful that the government will address the remaining issues of genuine concern about the viability of employee share ownership plans.